


Secrets

by Anonymous



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22210945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Everyone has things they don't talk about. Knuckles can't see why this is such a big deal.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

He should have known better than leave Sonic roam the Floating Island on his own. He had no idea how the blue hedgehog got the information or what forces made him draw the conclusion and probably never would now. All he did know was that he had definitely been unaware of… well, anything, before his short stroll, so the stroll had to be the cause.

He'd become sloppy, too used to Shadow visiting. Shadow could be left to his own devices. Shadow was good at figuring things out, but he knew how to take a hint. Shadow knew how to leave things well alone.

But Sonic wasn't Shadow. And it was too late now. 

“Were you ever going to tell us?”

It wasn’t the question itself but the serious undertone that caught Knuckles off guard. He whirled around before he could catch himself, only to be faced with an eyebrow arched and a restless tapping of a foot.

“What?..”

“I said,” Sonic repeated, his patient voice contrasting sharply with his body language, “Were you ever going to tell us?”

“I have no clue…”

“Eggman,” he said simply, succinctly, then paused and waited. Sure, his body still radiated impatience and he seemed unable to stop moving even for a moment, but the action, or rather lack thereof, seemed so uncharacteristic that Knuckles couldn’t help but let his jaw drop slightly. What on Mobius?..

Some of the vibrating tension seemed to dissipate as Sonic let out a small sigh, apparently seeing no understanding dawn. 

“When you said he had crashed on your island,” he clarified, his voice still oddly controlled if with a tiny bit of annoyance shining through. “Was there another thing that you simply forgot to mention?”

Bafflement gave way to irritation in a matter of seconds.

“I don’t see how this is any of your business,” he said, already turning on his heels to walk away.

“This is precisely what I am talking about!” was yelled into his back, the annoyance now clear. 

He didn’t turn. He wasn’t followed. He knew better than expect it to last.


	2. Chapter 2

"And he just didn't think to mention it, like it was some… I dunno… boring little detail or something!"

Tails chewed at the tip of his screwdriver as if it was a pencil, stared at the ceiling, then nodded and turned back to his work in silence. Sonic made a turn and strode 3 steps to an opposite contraption-filled wall of the workshop before having to turn again, the distance of another 3 steps awaiting him. 

By Chaos, this place was cramped. Couldn't Tails find a larger room to work in?

Then again, better not let Chaos make design decisions for buildings if Station Square was anything to go by. 

Tails regarded the bolts in front of him thoughtfully, picked up one, considering, then shook his head and dropped it, opting for the longer one instead.

"I mean, we've given him hell for it for as long as we knew him!" Sonic returned to his previous line of thought. "And here he had a good reason for it all along!" 

"Did you two fight?"

Half-an-hour rant of how annoying Knuckles the Echidna could be, and that was what Tails wanted to know. Figures.

Did they, anyway? He stopped his pacing, pondering. They didn't punch or spinball each other, but was it a fight?

Of course Tails interpreted his silence in his own way and sighed.

"Sonic, you have to be more patient with him. You know he's not good at this, especially with his pride on the line."

"Well, he's still an idiot," Sonic mumbled stubbornly. Nah, not a fight, just Knuckles being his usual difficult self. "What does pride have to do with it anyway?"

Tails shrugged. "It's Eggman. He's been tricking him since forever, remember? No wonder Knuckles doesn't like discussing it."

Well, Tails had a point there. But still…

"Is there even anything he likes discussing?"

Tails paused in his work, thinking. "Umm… maybe your less than successful moments?"

Just what exactly happened to his little bro while he was away? He never used to be this… blunt. Case in point, he never seemed to notice that Sonic even had moments that were less than successful.

If this was a sign of growing up, he wasn't prepared to deal with this too. 

"Perhaps you should leave him alone for a while," Tails suggested without a pause. "Let him blow off some steam and come up with a better strategy."

Better strategy, huh? Maybe he could think of something…

"Sonic! Are you here?" Amy's voice resonated in the hall. "I've been looking all over for you! There's something I need to…"

…on his way to Angel Island.


	3. Chapter 3

Knuckles pinched a grape from a bunch and sighed in contentment, leaning against the wooden wall and enjoying his peace and quiet. The island was undisturbed, the weather was warm and sunny with little to no wind, and washed, cut fruit were laid out carefully on wooden trays next to the house, drying in the sunlight. His supply of nuts was good that year too and he had gathered plenty of herbs, so if nothing went wrong he was almost stocked up for the winter.

He would check on his garden later that day, seeing as it was too hot to water the plants now. Maybe he'd need to weed them too. The seeds Cream had given him took well to growing on the island but required extra care, unlike the ones that grew here naturally. It took him a while to get a hand on it, but he didn't mind the additional work. It never hurt to have an extra supply of provisions, especially now that he had to think about his occasional visitors too.

…Some of them more welcome than others.

Knuckles closed his eyes and popped another grape into his mouth, stubbornly ignoring the sound of quiet footsteps approaching. He'd recognize them anywhere regardless. Perhaps if he pretended to be asleep…

"Hey there, Red."

"I thought I told you to leave," Knuckles commented without opening his eyes, too relaxed to muster up any annoyance for now. On the second thought, maybe he should have made it clear to stay away too.

"Amy was visiting." As if it was all the explanation required. 

Knuckles sighed and gave up, opening his eyes to find Sonic looking at the drying fruit curiously, as if seeing it for the first time. 

"You'd better not touch any of that," he grumbled out of habit. It wasn't like Sonic would be stopped by the threat if he truly wanted to help himself. And if he were honest, Knuckles wouldn't have terribly minded if he had snitched a couple. Not that Sonic was ever that interested in dried fruit, really, unless he ate it just for the sake of ruffling Knuckles' quills.

To his surprise Sonic almost looked uncomfortable at that, and wariness stirred in Knuckles' gut.

Sonic rubbed the nape of his neck, shifted foot to foot, exhaled and eventually spoke, looking as uneasy as Knuckles felt. "You know…. um… if you run out of supplies, or um, need anything in winter, and not just winter, I mean, you can always call us, right?"

Why would he?.. Knuckles nodded; they've had this conversation before, even though it's been a while.

"Good," Sonic nodded too. There was a long pause. "So um, I know it can be quite harsh in here sometimes, with the weather and different people constantly attacking you and Chaos knows what else, and you've barely had anyone to rely on, so I get it. I do. But we've dealt with plenty of horrible stuff too, you know, and it's not like we can't handle it, so if you could trust us a little bit more…"

"What are you rambling on about?" Knuckles interrupted.

Sonic looked him directly in the eye, visibly steeling himself. "If anything happens again, and I mean anything, I'd rather you came to us for help rather than asking him."

Knuckles couldn't believe it. Was that really what it was about? Give it to Sonic to get so worked up over something so small. Weren't he and Shadow long over their feud?

"I know you two don't get along, but I assure you he comes and goes on his own volition. He does have his uses sometimes, as well as a good timing, but I never asked him to help me."

Sonic's eyes widened at that and he took a step backwards in his surprise. "How can you be so casual about this? He's an enemy, Red! We can't trust him! Especially you, I thought you'd have learned that over the years!"

Anger flared up, and Knuckles jumped onto his feet in a second, his fists clenched tight. "Are you saying I'm so stupid I can't choose who my friends are?"

Sonic gave an exaggerated eye roll at that, crossing his arms on his chest. "Or for the sake of…! Just try and think about it for a second, Knucklehead!"

Knuckles closed the distance between him and punched, Sonic dodged, and that was the end of the Master Emerald's Guardian's peaceful afternoon.


	4. Chapter 4

_Two weeks ago_

The Emerald was glowing softly, but insistently, and if Sonic hadn't known better, he'd think that it almost wanted to _tell_ him something.

…Knuckles was always better at reading that damned rock's moods. But the echidna was elsewhere on the island doing Chaos knows what, and if they went to ask him Sonic would probably only get yelled at.

Sighing, he stared hard at the gem, as if willing it to give him the answers. Shadow moved closer, still keeping his distance. His eyes were focused on the Emerald too, and out of the corner of his vision Sonic saw him frown thoughtfully, his arms crossed.

It was of no surprise that he was just as attuned to the Chaos energy as Sonic was. What was surprising was Shadow still here at all. Sonic did not much care for his new habit of hanging about the island and not taking his leave even when Knuckles' friends were visiting. The jerk.

Sonic scowled at him before the glitter of the gem gained his attention again.

"Sonic, are you okay?"

He turned away from the Emerald to face Tails, who was giving him a concerned look.

He didn't want to worry his little brother. He opened his mouth to smile and reassure him that everything was perfect, excellent and a-okay.

The Emerald glowed brighter and the world went green before going black.  
_______________________________________________________________________________________________  
He awoke to the sound of what seemed to be half of the Southern Sea pouring down on the ground in a steady torrent. Blinking, he opened his eyes, only to instantly screw them shut instinctively as he saw the huge drops approach. For a couple of seconds, he waited, but no impact came, though the sound of the heavy rain persisted.

Come to think of it, he couldn't feel any of it - not only on his face, but the rest of his body as well.

Weird.

He chanced another look and was faced with the heavy steel clouds which seemed to loom much closer than he was used to and was comfortable with.

Then a bright lightning ripped the sky, and almost instantly it was followed by a thunder so loud he was on his feet in less than a second, his ears still ringing.

Not his idea of a nice awakening, mind you, but at least he wasn't wet, which was already a big plus in his book.

He looked around, taking in the green grass, the grey-blue of what looked to be a lake and what seemed to be a far line of trees, almost indiscernible in the grey haze.

And Shadow. Damn him.

The hedgehog was standing still as a statue, gazing up at the sky, his arms crossed in his customary posture. The rain that was thoroughly drenching the ground had absolutely no effect on him.

To be more precise, instead of shattering on his fur, the drops _phased_ through him before reaching the ground, intact.

On a whim, Sonic lifted his own arm and watched the water pass through it in the same manner. He supposed the sight should have made him uncomfortable, but after the meeting with the water god and handling magical gemstones on the regular basis it took more than that to surprise him.

Not to mention that water unable to touch him was definitely a good thing.

Shadow was still staring up, and, curious, Sonic abandoned his minutely entertainment to step up to the hedgehog and follow the direction of his stare.

Shadow didn't acknowledge him.

They stood in silence for what seemed about half a minute, before Sonic got tired of gazing into the grey, and, his questioning glances ignored, tried for a more direct approach.

"What'cha looking at?"

Again, he was ignored, which made him wonder if Shadow could even see or hear him at all.

"Hey, Shads?.."

"Watch," the hedgehog said, paused, then added as an afterthought: "And listen."

The lightning and the thunder chose just that moment to return with vengeance, and Sonic jumped out of surprise. Shadow gave no indication that he'd noticed, however, and, mentally sighing with relief, Sonic commented:

"I get that the storms here are pretty bad, whatever here is, but I just don't see what could be…"

"Sonic," Shadow interrupted, turning to look at him for the first time, and it took Sonic a moment to realize that the emotion in his voice was genuine surprise, if considerably muted. "That's Angel Island!"

"Oh," he took in his surroundings once again, now realizing that they looked familiar, if still barely recognizable through the grey curtain. "I see now."

Shadow huffed, already turning away.

"It must be pretty tough for Knux up here with that kind of weather," Sonic surmised.

Shadow didn't deign him with a response, his eyes back on the sky again. Uptight jerk.

A red dot appeared in the sky, struggling against the wind and the water and approaching them at a jerky speed with variable success. As the object grew closer it became obvious that its shape belonged to a plane.

A plane that was in a serious trouble, that is.

It looked like an unfortunate toy, caught in the hands of a kid who barely knew how to control it and therefore was pushing random buttons, not caring if his toy plane crashed into a ceiling or a wall or made a long drop out of the open window to its ultimate demise. The only difference being that it wasn't a remote that was responsible for the plane's frantic movements, but the air's powerful currents, just as careless as the kid would have been.

Another strong gust of wind almost blew the small craft off course completely, but with one desperate lunge it righted the path, stumbling its way to its destination with enviable resilience.

Whoever flew that thing was one heck of a good pilot. Maybe not quite as helpless as that toy plane, after all.

But the worst was still far from over. The plane still had to land.

Sonic wasn't a pro at flying vehicles and aerodynamics, but even he knew that touching down on an unknown not-quite-so-smooth ground with almost zero visibility wasn't quite as easy-breezy as the movies made it out to be.

The plane made a desperate lunge, missing the top of the forest barely by centimeters, only graze its bottom on a lonely tree. The roar of heavy rain masked the sound of the crash and the tearing metal. Sonic winced involuntarily, hoping that whoever was flying in the plane was still alive.

The hit altered the plane's course dramatically, sending it into a spin until it came crashing down on the ground about a hundred meters away from them. From their viewpoint Sonic could clearly see one of the wings torn off, showing the bits of metal and wire where it used to be joined with the rest of the vehicle.

That was one heck of a crash.

He dashed to the plane, trying to force the doors open more on instinct than anything else, but of course, his gloved hands phased cleanly through and he stepped back, remembering their predicament. Shadow approached him at a slower pace and stopped just out of reach.

Thunder rolled, making Sonic's tense body jump. He felt jittery, aching with the need to do something, to help, and yet forced into this position of being able to do absolutely nothing.

There was no sound from the plane at all.

"Do you think they're?.." he asked, just to fill the silence, but of course, there was no response.

Sonic clenched his twitching hands into fists, crossed his arms on his chest to suppress the nervous tremor caused by the adrenaline still flowing through his veins. Shadow remained annoyingly calm.

They waited.

Surprisingly, they didn't have to wait long.

A splash of red travelled through the haze, and soon Sonic's could make out the familiar figure. But as it drew closer he realized that something was different about it.

"Oh wow, that's an unexpected view," he mumbled, watching the small red echidna that couldn't be older than nine run up to the crashed plane, pause in wide-eyed surprise, then, expression set, close the rest of the way to try and rip the metal door off the vehicle.

Quietly and carefully, even though he couldn't be heard, Sonic walked around the plane to stand close to the little guy, who was struggling with the door with his trademark bone-headed stubbornness. It was so strange, thinking about Knuckles as little – even more so seeing him like this. It was obvious that Knux too was once a child, just like everyone else, and yet something about the picture just didn't click. He looked so small, so vulnerable – too small and vulnerable to stay in this place all by himself. Just how old was he when he had been dumped here?

It was one thing knowing that Knuckles had spent his entire life isolated on this goddamned floating rock. It was another facing the horrible implications of what that actually meant. Knuckles was only about a year older than Sonic, technically still a teenager, and yet Sonic had never thought about that particular part of his friend's history from this prospective before. It was… terrifying, actually, if you tried to fully take that in.

The door came off with a screeching metallic sound.

Apparently Shadow had walked around the plane unnoticed by Sonic while he was staring contemplatively at the younger version of his friend, because when Sonic finally looked at him the black hedgehog was staring intensely at the inside of the vehicle.

Sonic followed his gaze and froze in place, staring at the passenger in absolute shock. Sprawled in the leather armchair, his forehead bloody and his distinctive red hair thicker than Sonic remembered, was a younger, unconscious, but unmistakable form of Doctor Eggman.

Sonic's mind screeched into a jarring halt before helpfully supplying him with a memory.

"He crashed on my island," Knuckles explained. "I had to help him!"

_Oh crap._

Of course, it hadn't been a lie. Knuckles couldn't lie to save his life. He had just failed to specify the timeframe, apparently.

The funniest thing was that it was unlikely that he had left that little detail out on purpose. Probably he just didn't think of it as a big deal. But it was.

It _was._

_Knux, you idiot. You absolute, hopeless, utter idiot. If I could, I'd wallop you over your head right about…_

The world faded again.  
______________________________________________________________________  
"Sonic! Are you okay?" Tails' concerned voice broke through, as if through a haze, and he realized he was staring at the flickering bright green. With an effort he tore his gaze away and met bright blue instead.

Tails' hands were on his shoulders, shaking him, and he knocked the offensive limbs away almost absently. He wasn't angry or even annoyed, but he wanted the shaking to stop. What had?..

Ah. The Emerald. Right.

He turned to stare at the gem again, but Tails sidled into his line of sight, blocking the view.

"What happened?" the kit carefully ventured, forcing him to focus on the concerned blue again. "You spaced out there for a second."

Well, Sonic did always wonder what happened to the body when the Emerald dragged someone away for a memory course. At least he had the answer to this question now.

He wondered if Tails ever got pulled into it to be shown the stories of his own.

"I was just… taken for a trip," he answered after a moment's thought, not sure how to begin relay everything. Tails' eyes grew even more concerned. Oh oh.

He forced himself out of the vision (memory?) to face reality again.

Ah, yes, where was Shadow?

"I wish you wouldn't phrase it like that," a familiar voice spewing betrayal came from his right. "It gives people the wrong impression."

"How original of you," Sonic snapped back automatically, lacking the bite. Tails, however, gaped, and in the sudden silence he realized how poor the choice of words was. He cringed. Nice one, Sonic.

"Sorry," he muttered reluctantly, unsure if Shadow would believe the implication was unintentional.

Shadow, however, didn't seem angry, apparently not even registering the insult, consumed in own thoughts.

"Did you know about this?" Sonic asked after a pause, remembering the vision.

Shadow shook his head. "I didn't ask. He didn't either. We… we don't talk about these things."

"Sure puts everything in prospective though," Sonic mumbled. And just like that, anger ignited in his chest. "The jerk! I can't believe he'd…"

"It's worse than you think though," Shadow continued, ignoring the outburst, seemingly collected if distant. "The climate out here can be rough. You could see that for yourself. I know for sure that there were years when food was scarce."

Sonic looked at him in mute horror, for once at a loss for words.

"It's not that the fact that he was a child," Shadow continued mercilessly, not even turning to look at him. "Eggman was basically the only adult in his life and he wasn't just choosing, he was forced to rely on him…"

"Just shut up!" Sonic yelled.

Shadow blinked and, for once, listened. Tails stared at them both, unsure what was happening but uncomfortable. Sonic was breathing heavily.

He was going to _fix_ this.


End file.
